Washington at Work; New Health Care Czar Preparing for Long Leap

By ROBIN TONER,

Published: January 24, 1994

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23—
It is perhaps a logical career move for a political bungee jumper. After managing a New York Presidential primary campaign and a Democratic National Convention for his candidate, followed by a relaxing foray into the wilds of last year's New York mayoral race, Harold M. Ickes has become the Clinton Administration's health care czar.

He shrinks from the title, of course, as any modern czar is required to do. "This is a team effort," he insists. "That is not my role in any way, shape or form." But Mr. Ickes is in charge of bringing order to what has been, by many accounts, a rather diffuse and chaotic team, and thus restarting the Administration's chief domestic initiative, the Health Security Act of (they hope) 1994.

As a deputy White House chief of staff, Mr. Ickes, a New York lawyer, is also spending much of his time on the Administration's political health, trying to contain the furor over the Clintons' role in a failed real estate venture in Arkansas, the Whitewater Development Company.

Mr. Ickes (pronounced ICK-ease) comes to this job with a hard-driving reputation in national Democratic circles, where a tendency toward debate and consensus-building has made the ability to decide and to act a remarkable quality.

"This is a person who knows how to play for keeps," said Peter Hart, the Democratic poll taker. Mark Steitz, who worked with Mr. Ickes in the Clinton campaign in 1992 and in the Rev. Jesse Jackson's campaign in 1988, said, "Harold knows how to drive a decision." Another Democrat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of Mr. Ickes, "He's not afraid to scream at people."

This edgy aura is, in fact, part of his shtick. "He can be the blue chip New York lawyer, and then he can just explode," said George Stephanopoulos, a senior Presidential adviser working closely with Mr. Ickes.

His language, as a friend delicately puts it, can be "colorful." Mr. Ickes himself says carefully of his reputation: "I can be intense and very focused. And when something has to get done, I can typically get it done."

Among a youthful and Arkan-centric White House staff, Mr. Ickes, who is 54, also stands out for a resume that is a Baedeker to the liberal politics of the past 30 years: the antiwar effort and the civil rights movement, the Presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy, Edmund S. Muskie, Morris K. Udall, Edward M. Kennedy, Walter F. Mondale and Mr. Jackson, and the mayoral campaigns of David N. Dinkins, to name a few. Preference for 'Progressive'

He prefers the term "progressive" for his politics, and dislikes having his past characterized as staunchly liberal. He also seeks to head off an ideological attack. "I'm not here as an advocate of the left," he said. "I'm here to help Bill Clinton get through a very important social program."

Mr. Ickes brings to the White House a friendship with the President that dates to the antiwar movement and, equally important, a long connection with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Noting that he is a close friend of Susan Thomases, another New York lawyer and Clinton confidante, Mr. Ickes said that "we'd see each other for dinner" when the Clintons came to New York, and added, "It was a friendship that built over the years."

This and his reputation for toughness raises the possibility that Mr. Ickes can do what others apparently fear to do: give bad news to the First Lady. In the coming debate over health care, when the Administration's ability to negotiate and compromise will be critical, this will be an important trait. Some strategists on Capitol Hill have been struck by the lack of political realism in the operation headed by Mrs. Clinton and Ira C. Magaziner, the senior adviser for policy development who is a principal architect of the health plan.

What Mr. Ickes does not bring to his job, he acknowledges, is expertise in health care. "I was brought in to help talk strategy and help manage the overall process," he said. "I wasn't brought down here to be a health care expert." 'Harold Brings Passion'

Nor does he have a long background in dealing with Congress, some Capitol Hill Democrats note. But Paul Begala, a political adviser to Mr. Clinton, contends that there is a great need for a Harold Ickes in the White House. "It's very easy to slip into the bureaucracy, the mind-numbing round of meetings and memos," he said. "Harold brings passion and excitement."

Representative Newt Gingrich of Georgia, the House Republican whip, offers a different perspective: "My limited impression is that he represents the urban left wing of the Democratic Party, and to the degree that's true, I think it makes health care harder to do."

On a recent afternoon, in his White House office on the ground floor of the West Wing, Mr. Ickes is very much the somber and loyal Democrat answering the call to serve his President. The only signs of his vaunted intensity are the wariness of his blue eyes and a tendency to anticipate the subtext of a reporter's question.

Why take this job? "It's probably the most important social program, certainly in my lifetime and probably in decades," he said. "It was a great opportunity to work with this Administration and on this program."

The greatest hurdles to its passage? "I'm not going to get into details."

But in a general, cosmic sense? "I don't like to answer cosmic questions." Link to Roosevelt's Cabinet